Two men were arrested on Tuesday night for allegedly being part of a group that had fraudulently got hold of a SIM card belonging to a businessman from central Kolkata and withdrawn more than Rs 72 lakh from his bank account last year.
Police identified the duo as Sanjib Haldar and Rajat Kundu.
“They were arrested from their homes in Dakshineswar and Sodepur (on the northern fringes of Kolkata). Both were involved in a SIM-swapping case where the victim had lost Rs 72.42 lakh,” said an officer of the anti-bank fraud section of the detective department in Lalbazar.
The complainant — a businessman from Posta — had reported in December that Rs 72.42 lakh had been transferred from his account through six transactions without his knowledge.
The police said they found the businessman’s SIM card had got blocked without his knowledge and hence, he did not receive any of the transaction alerts that were sent from the bank.
“This modus operandi is called SIM swapping. First, the fraudsters forge the identity documents of their target. Then they report the loss of a SIM card of that person to a police station using his or her identity document. Once the general diary entry is made, they approach the telecom service provider with the GD seeking a new SIM. When a new SIM card is issued, the old one which is still in the possession of the owner, automatically gets blocked,” said an officer of the anti-bank fraud section.
In this case, when the original SIM card got blocked, the businessman did not raise any alarm, the police said.
“It was only when he found that he was unable to make payments from his bank because of a shortage of funds that he realised that he had been duped,” the officer added.
The moment someone’s SIM card is blocked, he or she should contact the telecom service provider. Till now, 17 others have been arrested in connection with this case.
